November 7th / 9th, 2008
"Hospital Plays Dirty Politics"
Just when we thought we’d seen the last of negative campaigning for awhile,
comes news that a local hospital has been slinging mud and hiding data in an
effort to block its competition.
Last year, Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and Novant Health
(parent company of Triad Today sponsor Forsyth Medical Center) both applied to the State for a
Certificate of Need (CON) so that each could build a new hospital. BMC in
Davie, and Novant in Clemmons.
But while Novant’s staff busied themselves demonstrating need to the State,
Baptist officials busied themselves with a fear-and-smear campaign. The
result was a CON for Baptist’s Davie project, and an initial rejection of the
proposed Clemmons hospital.
Late last month, documents surfaced showing that BMC began its dirty tricks
campaign by frightening Davie residents, telling them that if they didn’t
support a new hospital in Advance, then Baptist would be unable to renovate
their existing facility, and the county would be left without a hospital of any
kind. Then, in a brilliant, but devious stroke of political maneuvering
that would put Karl Rove to shame, BMC deflected blame away from themselves
for the threat which they had generated. According to a report in the Winston-Salem
Journal, Baptist circulated a flier to Davie residents in October of
2007 which stated that Forsyth Medical Center’s plans to build a hospital in
Clemmons was the reason why a new project in Davie was being jeopardized. “
The State won’t allow both to be built”, said the marketing flier.
Naturally residents of Davie county feared losing their only hospital, so
they mobilized behind BMC in favor of its proposed new hospital, and in
opposition to Novant’s plans in Clemmons.
The problem is that Baptist misled Davie residents because the State could
have approved construction of both hospitals, and still can.
But the subterfuge didn’t end there. While citizens of Davie county were
being misled by one piece of propaganda, residents of Clemmons and
Lewisville received an equally scurrilous letter sent by an attorney for Baptist. The
missive identified a potential threat to their quality of life, including
from hospital traffic and ambulance sirens, should Novant build a hospital in
Clemmons.
But thanks to evidence unearthed last month before the N.C. Office of
Administrative Hearings, we now know that Baptist kept hidden a traffic study they
had commissioned which found that a Clemmons hospital would not have an
adverse effect on local neighborhoods.
It’s no wonder that Novant CEO Paul Wiles told a CON hearing last September that
WFUBMC had lost its moral compass in how the institution and its leadership
have interacted with the public during this particular CON battle.
But in an article published on October 23, Baptist Hospital interim
President Donnie Lambeth told the Winston-Salem Journal that he had been unaware of
the traffic report, and had first seen it the day before. Moreover, when
Lambeth discovered misleading language in the Davie marketing flier, he had it
removed from subsequent versions. Lambeth is a good and honest man who
stepped into a situation that attorneys and others had mishandled, but that doesn’t
make Wiles’ lament any less valid.
After an initial rejection, Novant submitted a second application to the
State in mid-July, and is awaiting a positive outcome. Given the recent
revelations regarding Baptist Medical Center’s unethical behavior, a Certificate of
Need should be granted to Novant post haste.
Until then, BMC should withdraw any objections it has to Novant’s planned
hospital in Clemmons. For Baptist to argue that two hospitals can’t operate
so close together is disingenuous to say the least. After all, Baptist
Hospital and Forsyth Medical Center are both located on the same street, and have
co-existed for decades, both providing much needed services to the public.
Clearly BMC acted badly in this matter, but the State’s hands aren’t
exactly clean either. The CON system runs contrary to a free market society. It
should be up to the corporation, not the government, to decide how many plants
it wants to build, or how much equipment it wants to purchase. And so,
lawmakers should take a look at abolishing a bad system that allowed some bad
actors to CON the public.
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